Only 21 Days Until Valentine's Day!

Are you ready for the holiday? Do you have your decorations up? Shopping done? Gifts wrapped? (One for ME?!) Deja vu! Didn't we just do this a month or so ago? But it's time to start getting at least a little excited for the next BIG HOLIDAY, right?

I've already shown you the "transition" quilt I made with the hearts and the trees, so I won't show that one again tonight. And by the way, my son was over the other day, helping with the fence (remember the one that blew down?) and said, "Hey, mom, what does 'worm hearts' mean?" Yeah, maybe I'm going to have to make my "A"s look a little more like "A"s at some point. But this isn't it. Maybe after Valentine's Day. Or at least before the next one.

Tonight I thought I'd show you a couple other Valentine's quilts--maybe you can get a little inspiration or the spark of an idea from them.

The quilt above is one of the first I made when I started quilting. In fact, the four larger hearts were made in my beginning quilting class--each uses a different applique technique. I picked the technique I liked best and made the smaller hearts to add to it. This quilt hangs all over the house at different times of the year but there's usually a wall somewhere for it. Right now, I have it hanging over the stove. I figure maybe it serves as a good excuse not to do a whole lot of cooking and baking for the time being--after all, I wouldn't want to damage it!

Last year I became enamored with charm packs and made the quilt above. I used three charm packs--one for the center squares and two packs of squares cut on the diagonal to make the outer parts of the blocks. The quilting was pretty fast and easy--I just quilted some free-form hearts in each block and kept going around and around. I think I had this one on the wall with my Valentine tree last year, but this year it's living on my table (which, of course, isn't getting dirty because I'm not cooking much!).

I also made the small quilt above last year--this one uses mostly 1800s repro-type fabrics. In my Jo's Little Women group, we were given this pattern, but the heart blocks weren't hearts--they were just made up of half square triangles. In looking at it, it occurred to me that I could substitute the tops of hearts for the top half square triangles. If there was only one thing I could pass on to other quilters, it would be this: Look at quilt patterns with the creative part of your mind and think about what you could change to make it "yours." Experiment with a block or two and see what happens. It's fun!

Finally, I know it's not a quilt, but I had to run out to Kohl's tonight for a new pair of slippers and found this little Valentine tree. After Valentine's Day is over, I'm pretty sure it will become an Easter tree. Oh, and check out my stylin' Moda dish towels. Pretty neat, huh? One of our local quilt shops has been carrying some of Moda's Sliced Bread items, and these had to come home with me a few weeks ago. Which kind of brings me to tomorrow night's subject--unless something more exciting comes up: Shopping. Stay tuned! And thanks for stopping in!